On Friday evening, Spiegel published a video and materials dating back to July 2017, when the leader of the Austrian Freedom Party Heinz Christian Strache and his assistant Johann Gudenus met with an alleged Russian woman in Ibiza, who declared desire to invest a large amount of money in Austria.
According to the ORF broadcaster, Austria is likely to hold snap elections after the video released by media showing the Vice-Chancellor of the Republic, Heinz-Christian Strache, allegedly promising government contracts in return for campaign funding.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz ruled out further cooperation with Heinz-Christian Strache, according to DPA news agency, which cited its own sources.
According to media outlets, Strache allegedly offered this woman a secret deal and promised access to government contracts in Austria in exchange for the provision of financial assistance to his party in the October 2017 parliamentary elections.
Spiegel and Sueddeutsche Zeitung claimed that the meeting, which took place on Ibiza back in 2017, before Strache became the vice-chancellor, was also attended by another FPO politician, Johann Gudenus.
Sebastian Kurz is due to meet with Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache later in the day to discuss his future.